SPOILERS. Don’t read past this paragraph if you don’t want to know what happened on Monday’s episode of Jeopardy. Seriously, stop reading. Here’s a story about Drake instead.
*
*
*
*
OK, cool. Welcome!
James Holzhauer’s historic run on Jeopardy officially came to an end in Monday’s episode as 27-year-old University of Chicago librarian Emma Boettcher ousted Holzhauer before he could break Ken Jennings’ record.
Boettcher correctly answered the Final Jeopardy clue and wagered $20,000 to put her score out Holzhauer’s reach. It was a smart move that had all the signs of an experienced Jeopardy fan, and that’s because Boettcher isn’t your typical Jeopardy contestant.
She wrote her actual Master’s paper about Jeopardy.
As footage of the shocking takedown of Holzhauer, which was leaked ahead of time, made waves on social media, Jeopardy fans looked to learn more about the new champion. Boettcher studied at the University of North Carolina School of Information and Library Science.
That was where Reddit users found her old Master’s paper about Jeopardy.
In April of 2016, Boettcher submitted a Master’s paper entitled, “Predicting the Difficulty of Trivia Questions Using Text Features.”
The 70-page paper, which can be found here, breaks down technical aspects of Jeopardy that few contestants would ever think of preparing for.
Her alma mater was especially excited about the huge win.
Boettcher took home $46,801 in the victory. Holzhauer had earned $2,462,216.
